When child custody in Washington involves long-distance visitation
As a Washington parent who is navigating divorce, you may encounter challenges as you and your ex attempt to find common ground from which to build a successful co-parenting agreement. Since you both want what is best for your children, you can help facilitate a smooth process by being willing to cooperate, especially if your family has unique needs. For example, if you and your ex live a great distance apart, then things might get tricky when you try to create a visitation plan.
If you do not think a traditional visitation schedule will work in your case, such as transferring custody every other week, you can devise a schedule that meets your family’s needs. What’s most important is that, once you sign an agreement or the court issues orders, you and your ex must both adhere to the plan. If a parent disregards a visitation agreement, serious legal problems can arise.
Consider creating a child custody plan that accommodates long distance
If your children must take a plane or train or bus ride to get to their other parent’s house, it may not be economically feasible to transfer custody every other week. Consider some of the ideas shown in the following list as an alternative:
- Kids stay with parent who has primary custody throughout the year but visit the non-custodial parent for holidays and summer breaks from school.
- Custody transfers take place quarterly, such as every four months.
- Children rotate years, which may be easier for families who homeschool.
The ages of your children and other factors might affect your ability to implement one type of visitation plan over another. For example, if your children are involved in sports or marching band or another club, they might have obligations to fulfill that require them to be present.
A visitation agreement is legally enforceable. However, that does not mean an agreement is set in stone. If you try a particular schedule, and it is not working out, you can return to court to ask the judge to grant a modification. Judges often change court orders when issues such as financial crisis, change of location or employment issues arise.
Resolving long-distance child custody issues
Even with pure intentions and a willingness to work as a team to protect your children’s best interests, unexpected issues or disagreements may arise to throw your child custody plan off course. The sooner you can achieve a fair and agreeable solution, the better it is for the whole family. There are support resources available for any Washington parent facing custody problems that he or she has been unable to resolve.